The 2023 City of Plymouth Dance Festival
We are pleased to report that after a gap of two years, a very successful 2022 City of Plymouth Dance Festival was held for 9 days from Saturday July 23rd through to Sunday 31st at Lipson Co-operative Academy.
We were all so pleased to be returning to Lipson Co-Operative Academy, and look forward to heading there again when it hosts the 2023 City of Plymouth Dance Festival from Saturday July 22nd to Sunday 30th July.
Despite a fall in the number of entries, and our festival clashing with the national All England Dance Finals, our festival’s positive and friendly ethos the atmosphere quickly returned as if the festival had never been cancelled.
Once again, we heard over and over again that because of the friendly, positive atmosphere, the venue, the helpfulness of Lipson’s staff and the festival volunteers, “Plymouth dance festival was their favourite festival”. Everyone was so pleased that we were back.
We are very excited to announce that the adjudicator for Plymouth’s 2023 Dance Festival is:
Gemma Summerscales-Heard
Gemma is an approved tutor and a dual fellowship of the ISTD.
She trained at Summerscales Performing Arts and went on to Tiffany Theatre College for a graduate course. Her professional performance experience started as a child, first modelling for various international brands including Coca-Cola. She then went on to perform as a child in UK tours and in the West End including productions with the New Shakespeare Company. She was also invited to appear as a singer/dancer at the Olympic Games in Sydney 2000.
Gemma then started to choreograph leading her into teaching. Passionate for passing her love of the arts on to students she continues to extend her knowledge of theatre and dance with recognised and respected practitioners in the UK and USA.
Gemma is delighted to be recognised as an adjudicator for The British and International Federation of Festivals and is looking forward to adjudicating at the Plymouth dance festival in July.
The Safe Return of all Festival Cups and Trophies
Auditing and preparing returned cups ready for presentation is a mammoth task and requires a lot of time, effort and space.
So, to support and make this task as easy as possible for our Cup Secretary Carolyne, we ask that the dance cups and trophies, presented last year in 2022, are returned to her at the latest by the 16th of June 2023.
Cups and trophies should be engraved with the name of the performer who had won the class and had been presented with the award. Similarly, the names of all performers in duet, trio and quad classes should be engraved on the award.
The cup or trophy should then be returned to Carolyne.
Cups and trophies can be delivered in person to Carolyne’s home address and left in the labelled box in her back garden. Or, they can be boxed, carefully wrapped and posted to the address below:
- 18 Woolcombe Lane
- Ivybridge
- Plymouth PL21 0UA
- 01752 895254 or 07881 303204
- [email protected] or [email protected]
If you have any queries regarding the return of your cup or trophy, please contact Carolyne. You can also contact her to make a personal arrangement. She is always very helpful.
Supervision of Performers
Please remember that for the duration of the festival all teachers, parents, guardians and carers are responsible for the continuous care and supervision of their own children or pupils. If they are unable to attend personally, they must delegate their responsibilities to an identified adult and ensure that their children or pupils are aware of the identity and name of the person responsible for their care. This includes supervision throughout all Festival venues, performance and practice and changing areas that are be provided.
For your information, please read Plymouth festival’s Safer Festivals Statement which can be downloaded from the Important Documents section at the top of this page.
The Festival Performance
The Festival experience differs from the examination situation in that it offers participants the opportunity to perform on a public stage in front of an audience and receive a mark and feedback from a qualified adjudicator.
The adjudicator will therefore look for a complete performance, including attention to dress, entrances and exits, announcing and acknowledging both applause and, where appropriate, the accompanist.
Please remember to use our website and Facebook and Twitter pages to receive notifications regarding all three of our festivals.